Suffolk County Police Department has called upon the New York City Police Department to assist in operations while the county continues to investigate a cyber intrusion that has put its systems offline since Sept. 8.
The NYPD has sent 10 emergency complaint operators to help in Suffolk police’s communications section, Suffolk Police Commissioner Rodney K. Harrison announced at a news conference on Monday.
“While operations have continued, our emergency call operators had been operating around the clock and unfortunately had to go back to our old system where call details were recorded by hand,” Harrison said. “… We’re up and running and making sure we do whatever we have to do regarding public safety in Suffolk County.”
Since last week, Suffolk police officers have also been using New York State police barracks to print individuals during arrests.
The cyber intrusion was first discovered on Sept. 8, at which point the county moved all its email addresses and other online systems offline “out of an abundance of caution,” County Executive Steve Bellone said.
The county’s information technology department, along with outside cyber security experts, have been investigating the source of the cyber intrusion. About a week after it was found, hackers leaked documents and threatened to leak more if Suffolk did not cooperate and pay an undisclosed amount of money.
The apparent ransomware attack is still under investigation.
